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Håvard Bustnes

Håvard Bustnes

Directing

Biography

Håvard Bustnes (1973) has directed and produced documentaries for more than 20 years. He is based in Trondheim where he is a founding member and co-owner of the production company UpNorth Film. Bustnes made his international breakthrough with the feature documentary "Big John" (2008) which won several awards, including the Amanda Award, Best Nordic Documentary at Nordic Panorama in Malmö, The Golden Chair in Grimstad, and The Crystal Heart Award in USA. After this, his movies "Health Factory" (2010), "Two Raging Grannies" (2013), and "Golden Dawn Girls" (2017) have been screened at more then 100 film festivals, won awards and nominations at notable film festivals like IDFA and Hot Docs, and have been broadcast at television and cinemas worldwide. His latest feature "Name of the Game" (2021) premiered at IDFA in Amsterdam, which is the worlds biggest documentary film festival.

Known For

Norwegian Dream
5.8

Robert moves from the Polish countryside to work on a fish processing factory on the coast of Norway. There he falls in love with Ivar who is openly gay and a member of the workers union. Robert is hiding his sexual orientation from the other Polish immigrant workers. When Ivar helps the Polish to start a strike for better working conditions at the factory, Robert has to choose between money or love.

Norwegian Dream

2023
Let Our Mountains Live
N/A

Sami reindeer herders win a Supreme Court victory against Europe’s largest wind farm - but when the state refuses to act, their fight reveals a deeper crisis of justice and trust.

Let Our Mountains Live

2026
Privacy of Wounds
N/A

Set as an experiment in a simulated cell in Oslo, three former political prisoners are locked up for three days with no film crew, to revisit their memories of Syria's darkest detention facilities.

Privacy of Wounds

2018
My AI Election
N/A

A Trump supporter and election denier joins Georgia’s election board to expose fraud but, through conversations with a ChatGPT assistant and firsthand experience, he discovers the system’s surprising integrity — and realizes large-scale voter fraud is far harder than he believed.

My AI Election

2026
Phantoms of the Sierra Madre
8.0

A Danish writer travels to Mexico with the purpose of locating a mysterious Apache tribe that fervently seeks to remain in obscurity.

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre

2024
Name of the Game
6.5

One of Norway's most promising politicians is close to becoming the next prime minister, until scandalous stories of his past surface in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Director Håvard Bustnes sets out to make a film about him, but over time, he himself gets more and more drawn into Giske's publicity campaign.

Name of the Game

2022
Golden Dawn Girls
5.8

The key male members of the far-right political party Golden Dawn are imprisoned accused of carrying out organized criminal activity. To maintain Golden Dawn's position as the fifth largest political party in Greece, their daughters, wives and mothers step up to the task of leading the party through the upcoming elections.

Golden Dawn Girls

2018
Behind the Mask
N/A

Survivor Abduweli flees a Chinese Uyghur internment camp to Norway. Now, heading to Germany to confront a past torturer, his daughter’s panic attack forces a choice: exposing Uyghur genocide for the world, or shielding his family from painful memories.

Behind the Mask

2024
Two Raging Grannies
7.0

Two Raging Grannies is a touching and thought-provoking documentary that challenges the idea that we must continue to shop, consume, amass, and keep the economy growing.

Two Raging Grannies

2013
Health Factory
N/A

Health care institutions mimic industry production to become more efficient. The goal is to get more health for the money spent, based on the presumption that private corporations are more efficient and less wasteful than public institutions.

Health Factory

2010
The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy
7.0

The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy is a gripping story about power struggle, failure, and the delicate balance between good and bad.

The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy

2025
Big John
7.0

A documentary about the father-and-son boxers, John and Ole Klemetsen.

Big John

2008
No image
N/A

"Hello, I'm calling from the Asthma and Allergy Association ..." Telemarketers are a hated professional group, but the nuances and mission are as many different as the voices.

Positive Mental Attitude

2007